Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program.
Description of the Related Art
In a controller of an image forming apparatus, a plurality of memories is often used. For example, a not-and (NAND) flash memory is used to store a boot program, and a serial not-or (NOR) flash memory is used to temporarily store data.
Moreover, a system-on-a-chip (SOC) can incorporate a larger number of circuits as integration density of a semiconductor integrated circuit has been increased. However, if the number of terminals is increased, a package size becomes large, causing an increase in costs.
Thus, a terminal for a dedicated-circuit is often shared with a general-purpose input/output (I/O) port. When the dedicated circuit is not used, the terminal is used as the general-purpose I/O port. This method reduces the number of terminals of the SOC. Moreover, a terminal of a controller SOC may be shared between a built-in read only memory (ROM) and an external secure digital (SD) card. In such a case, when an apparatus is activated, the boot program for the activation can be switched to the program stored in the built-in ROM or the external SD card (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-192051).
Meanwhile, an embedded multimedia card (e-MMC) has recently become widespread as a memory device, and been used in various systems.
In the market environment which often requests for larger data storage and higher-speed operation, the memory device has been improved to respond to such requests.
The e-MMC has characteristics of having larger capacity and operating at higher-speed compared to a conventional memory device such as a NAND flash memory.
Moreover, the use of the e-MMC can not only dynamically change a data bus width at 8 bits, 4 bits and 1 bit, but also change a clock frequency.
According to the above-described technique, the terminal of the controller SOC can be shared between the built-in ROM and the external SD card, thereby reducing the number of terminals. However, high-speed activation cannot be achieved by such a technique.